Various electronic devices are mounted on a vehicle as a moving object. Those electronic devices are connected with a wire harness so as to transmit electric power or control signal between them. The wire harness has an electric wire bundle in which a plurality of electric wires are bundled, and a connector attached to the terminal of the electric wire bundle. (For example, see Patent Document 1). Also, many of connector has a structure including a terminal of which a mating terminal is fitted to one end and an electric wire is connected to the other end, and a housing receiving a plurality of the terminals.
FIG. 9 shows the structure of a conventional connector as an example. In the connector 500 shown in FIG. 9, a terminal 520 is housed in a cylindrical-shaped terminal receiving chamber 511 arranged in a housing 510 in a state that the terminal 520 is retained. The retaining of the terminal 520 is performed by a flexible lance 512 arranged in the housing 510. The flexible lance 512 is positioned adjacent to the terminal receiving chamber 511, extends in a longitudinal direction of the terminal receiving chamber 511, and is a flexible member. One end of the flexible lance 512 is a free end. A part of the flexible lance 512 at the free end side is a locking portion 512a projecting into the inside of the terminal receiving chamber 511 so that the part of the flexible lance 512 is locked on the terminal 520 in the terminal receiving chamber 511 and retained. When inserting the terminal 520 into the terminal receiving chamber 511 or when extracting from the terminal 520 after inserted into the terminal receiving chamber 511, the flexible lance 512 is bent to the outside of the terminal receiving chamber 511, and the locking portion 512a is locked or unlocked on the terminal 520. Furthermore, the tip of the terminal 520 in the terminal receiving chamber 511 is supported with a front holder 530 attached to the housing 510.
Also, in the connector 500 shown in FIG. 9, two flexible lances 512 are arranged adjacent to two terminal receiving chambers 511, respectively, and integrally formed at the end portion of the right side in FIG. 9. Further, two flexible lances 512 are located in a back-to-back position so that two flexible lances 512 are bent in a mutually approaching direction when inserting or extracting the terminal 520. Two flexible lances 512 are formed in the back-to-back, and thereby a space between two terminal receiving chambers 511 can be shorted. As a result, the size of the connector 500 can be reduced.